Sussex University said that more than 90 per cent of its students were satisfied with the quality of their course, according to the results of the National Student Survey.
The results place Sussex – which has its main campus in Falmer – equal seventh for student satisfaction for British universities.
Last year it was rated 35th.
Sussex ranks alongside Oxford and Cambridge and among leading research-intensive universities.
The university has also shown the greatest improvement of any university since 2007, improving its score every year for the past three years.
The vice-chancellor, Professor Michael Farthing, said: “These results show a sustained and significant improvement in student satisfaction at Sussex.
“They reflect the excellent quality of the student experience which we offer – and the hard work by all our staff to continue to improve what we do.
“The fact that our scores in the National Student Survey have improved for the third year in a row shows that we are listening to the feedback from thousands of our students.”
The NSS asks finalist undergraduates 22 questions across seven measures:
- teaching
- academic support
- assessment and feedback
- learning resources
- organisation and management
- personal development
- overall satisfaction
The 90 per cent score for Sussex is for question 22, which scores the “overall satisfaction” with students’ courses.
The average score for the University of Sussex across all 22 questions in the survey is 83 per cent.
This compares with a national average for all universities of 75 per cent.
This is a rise of more than five percentage points from 77 per cent in 2009 – while the change across the higher education sector is a one percentage point rise.
Sussex improved its score for every one of the 22 questions and every one of the seven measures into which it is grouped.
Professor Clare Mackie, pro-vice-chancellor (teaching and learning), was full of praise for the staff at Sussex and what has been achieved.
She said: “Sussex has made improvements in areas where schools and departments have targeted their action year on year, making significant improvements for example in how we conduct assessment and give feedback, and how we provide academic support.
“The challenge now will be to maintain and improve on these excellent results – and I will be working with our schools and departments to help support this.
“I want to work closely with our student community, with the Students’ Union and our student reps. We need to show our students how we have responded to their views, and how we can develop our services further.”
